by Nick Russell
"How do you feel about that?"
She shrugged her shoulders and said, “I don't know."
"What's holding you back from settling, Maddy? Is it not enough money or…"
"Oh, it's a lot of money, John Lee. A lot of money. I'm not trying to get more out of them. I guess inside of me, I feel like if I take the money, that just makes it all alright and it all goes away. I know that sounds dumb because that's what I should be doing, right? Putting it all behind me?"
“You have to do what is right for you, Maddy."
"I know,” she told him. “And for the most part, I think I have put it behind me. The thing is. It's almost like… I don't know, John Lee. It's almost like if I take the money, it just never happened. But it did happen."
"Have you talked to your counselor about it?"
"Yeah, I did. She told me the same thing that you did. I have to do what's right for me. The thing is, I don't know what's right for me!"
“There’s no statute of limitations on something like that, as far as I know," he said. "The other day you said you had to talk to an attorney. Have you done that yet?"
"No, I haven't. And I know I should. Anyway, back to the whole thing about kids. If we go any further, we both need to be on the same page about that, okay?"
"Okay, fine with me."
"So, where are you with it, honestly, John Lee? What if I can’t have kids?"
“Then we won't,” he told her. “It’s that simple."
“You don't think you'll ever regret that?"
“Right now, today, I can tell you that it's not an issue for me. And I don't think it will be down the line, as far as I know."
"But what if it is someday?"
He took her hand and raised it to his lips and kissed it and said, "Maddy, I want to be with you. I want to be with you every minute of every day and every minute of every night, forever. If we have kids, we have kids. If we don't, we don't."
“I think about all this a lot, John Lee. Not just kids, but about you and me. We all know how shaky a marriage can be when one person's a cop. And we know that when both people are cops, the chances of making it long-term just aren't all that great."
"We’re not most people, Maddy. We've known each other since long before either one of us ever thought about being a cop, right?"
She nodded her head and said, "I know, and my feelings for you have been the same since I was a girl. But we have to be realistic. We might be working different schedules, we might not see each other very much sometimes if I'm working nights and you’re working days or whatever. What about that?"
“Maddy, when I was a kid, I remember Paw Paw teaching me something about quantity and quality. I remember something he said, that it's better to have less of something wonderful than a whole bunch of something that wasn't so good. Any time that I can have with you, I want. Does that make any sense?"
She leaned over and kissed him on the lips. "I feel that way, too."
“You said you think a lot about us. What do you see happening, Maddy?"
"What do you mean?"
"Do you see us being married? Do you see us living together? How do you see it working out?"
“John Lee, there's nothing I want more than to be your wife. At the same time, I have to admit I'm kind of independent. I don't know how that's going to play into things."
"You’re independent? I never noticed that," he teased with a smile.
"Bite me."
“Anyplace you want me to,” he promised.
They kissed again, the kiss growing longer and more passionate, and after a moment or two, Maddy gently put her hand on his chest and pushed him back.
“You probably need to go home and feed Magic," she said.
"Yeah, I probably should."
They kissed again and she said, “You really need to go home and feed Magic."
“He's a big dog. I don't think he’ll starve to death anytime soon."
“John Lee, it's going to happen, and it will before too much longer. I promise you. But not yet, okay?"
"I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to push."
“You're not pushing," she assured him. "Not even a little bit. Just give me more time, okay?"
"Whatever you need," he said.
She walked him to the door and they kissed again, and as John Lee opened the Charger’s door, Maddy said, "Be sure to polish those bells, John Lee. You want to keep them nice and sparkly." She laughed and closed her door.
Chapter 30
John Lee was getting dressed the next morning when his phone rang. Picking it up from the nightstand in his bedroom, he pushed the button and said, “Good morning, Maddy. How are you doing today?"
"I'm good. How about you? Did you polish the bells last night?"
“No, I just gave them a long cold shower," he said, and heard her laughing. “You wouldn’t be laughing if you saw my water bill.”
“Dick Schroeder called me a little while ago and reminded me that I need to go qualify with my weapon," Maddy told him. “D.W. just handed me my badge credentials and said welcome back, but he didn’t mention that. It's been more than six months, so I guess I need to go do that this morning.”
“Do you want me to go with you?"
"No, I'll be fine. I have to meet with Dick so he can make it official that I know how to pull the trigger and hit a target and not shoot myself in the foot."
"Oh, hell, Maddy. I shoot myself in the foot just about every day. You know that."
She laughed and said, “Anyway, I'll give you a shout when I'm done. What will you do in the meantime?"
“I guess I'll just wander around lost and confused, without you to keep me on the straight and narrow."
"Or you could get together with D.W. and fill him in on what we learned yesterday."
"Yeah, I guess I could do that," John Lee said.
“I've been thinking about something, John Lee."
"Me, too. That’s why I had to take a long cold shower."
She laughed and said, “Yeah well, I was thinking about that, too. But what I meant to say was, what do you think might happen if you were to tell Sonny Rittenhouse what we found out yesterday? Up ’til now, it's been a rumor, but there was no proof. That video of Audrey and Lonnie from Lake City, with her hanging all over him while he was registering. I don’t know if that’s something he needs to know about or not."
"I don't either, to be honest," John Lee said. "The guy’s already suffering enough. Is there anything to be gained by that?"
"I don't really know," she said. "Probably not."
"Let's get together after you’re done playing Annie Oakley and we’ll take it from there, okay?"
"Sounds good."
After he fed Magic and played with him for a while, John Lee looked at the calendar to see when his next official range qualification was due. He still had over seven weeks to go. Not that he didn't shoot quite often anyway because he enjoyed it, and because he believed that any person who carried a gun had damn well better know how to use it when they needed to. More than once, John Lee had needed to.
He called the sheriff's office and was told that D.W. was in a meeting with the county commissioners and wouldn't be available for at least two hours. With time to kill, he sat at his kitchen table and used a yellow legal pad to make notes of everything they knew about the case so far. After half an hour or so Magic bumped his knee with his head and looked up at him with his big brown eyes.
"You've already been fed and you've already been out. What do you want now?"
The dog thumped his tail against a table leg and John Lee shook his head. "You know, it's probably just as good that Maddy may not be able to have kids. Putting up with you is hard enough, boy. I don't suppose I could just leave a kid out in the dog run all day, could I?"
Magic whined and thumped the table leg with his tail again, laying his head on John Lee's knee, looking up at him. He patted the dog and leaned over and kissed the top of his head.
“What are a couple of b
achelors like us going to do with a woman living here, Magic? That's gonna change our lives a bit, won’t it?"
The dog whined again and then looked towards the door expectantly.
"I really don't have time to play with you this morning. I’m a working man. All those rawhide chew toys of yours and the food you go through ain’t cheap, boy. Somebody has to earn a living and I don't see you bringing home a paycheck."
Magic walked to the door and looked at him expectantly. John Lee sighed and put the pen down. "Okay, you win. But fifteen minutes, that's it, understand?"
The fifteen minutes easily turned into thirty, Him throwing the Kong and Magic retrieving it, then playing tug of war, both of them having a good time. Often John Lee felt guilty for leaving Magic alone so much when he was working, but the dog seemed to adapt to that better than Emily ever had. Thinking about his ex-wife and how much he had loved her and how badly their marriage had ended, he had a moment’s hesitation about Maddy. She had been right, the night before, she was an independent woman. No question about that. And John Lee was independent in his own right. He imagined that if they were to live together, they would have to butt heads a bit until they worked all that out. But he was pretty sure they would be able to handle it after all they had been through together. His phone rang and he pulled it from his pocket and said. "What's up, Mama Nell?"
"John Lee, you need to get over here."
“What? Speak up, Mama Nell. I can hardly hear you."
"That's because I'm whisperin.’ I don't want anybody to hear me."
“Well, you're doing a pretty good job of that because like I said, I can hardly hear you. What's going on?"
“She's back."
“Who’s back? Bella?"
"Yeah. Uncle Billy got his hand banged up when they were workin’ on the brakes this mornin’ and Paw Paw took him to the urgent care in town. I just looked out a minute ago and saw somebody moving around inside his motorhome. It's her, John Lee!"
"Okay, Mama Nell. You stay inside. I'm on my way. And if she comes to the door, don't answer."
“Do ya think she's dangerous?"
"I don't think so," he told her. "But she's definitely got a screw loose. I don't want you to take any chances, okay?"
"Okay, John Lee. Hurry!"
***
He spotted Bella's rental Hyundai parked behind some trees in a field a quarter-mile from his grandparents’ house. Pulling in the driveway, he parked in front of the motorhome and went to the door. "Bella, this is John Lee Quarrels," he said loudly. "Come to the door right now and keep your hands where I can see them."
There was no response. Keeping one hand on his holstered pistol, he opened the door. Stepping inside the motorhome, he said, "Wherever you are, show me your hands right now, Bella!"
"Don't shoot, I don't have a gun."
“Well, I do. Come out where I can see you," he ordered.
She emerged from the motorhome's bathroom, keeping her hands in plain view. “See, I don't have a gun or anything on me."
“Turn around and put your hands behind your head," John Lee said.
When she did, he pulled out his handcuffs and put them on her.
“What the hell are you doing?"
"You're under arrest for burglary and for trespass, Bella. And if I can think of anything else by the time I get you down to the jail, I’m going to charge you with that, too."
She turned around, shaking her head. "You can’t do that to me!"
"I just did."
"You can’t charge me with burglary for being in my own father's motorhome."
“Yes, ma'am, I can, and I am. And like I said. you're also been charged with trespassing. Let's go."
“No. I only wanted to get proof, and I've got it to show you."
"I don't care what you've got to show me and I don't care what you tell me," John Lee said.
“Then look for yourself,” she said nodding with her head towards Billy's desk. “Look at that folder on top of the desk if you don't believe me."
"You stay put." He went to the desk and looked at the manila folder sitting on it.
“Open it and look inside."
"I'm not going to violate your father's privacy, Bella."
"I'm telling you, you need to look in there. If you don’t believe what I've been telling you, look!”
Against his better judgment, mostly to shut her up, he opened the manila folder. When he did, he felt his stomach drop. Looking at the woman incredulously, he asked, “How long have you known about this?"
“Long enough. And that’s just one of his scams, John Lee. I keep telling people, but nobody will listen to me!"
“Sit down there on the couch,” he said pointing. "I need to think about this for a minute."
“What’s there to think about?"
“I said sit down."
John Lee opened the folder again and looked at its contents. After a while, he said, "I’m giving you two choices, Bella. I can take you to jail right now, or I can take these handcuffs off and you can get the hell out of here and you don't come back. Which is it going to be?"
"What are you going to do about what’s in that folder?”
"Never mind what I'm going to do. Where do you want to go, jail or home? Because those are your only two options, and I swear to God, if you come back here again, it's not going to end well for you."
“What about my father? Are you going to ignore what he’s doing"
"We’re not talking about him," John Lee told her. "Right now, we're talking about you."
"You need to arrest him."
"Your father keeps telling us what a hardheaded woman you are, and I can sure see that," John Lee said. “Like I said, we’re not talking about him, we’re talking about you. What's it gonna be, jail or home?"
“I'm not going to give up seeing him put away somewhere," she said stubbornly. “I'll leave and I won’t come back. But I'm not going to quit until I stop him."
“I'm taking you at your word about that, though I have no reason at all to believe you,” he told her.
"You have to live with your own conscience, John Lee. You're a cop. You need to decide what you’re going to do. I know what I'm going to do. If he keeps this up, sooner or later I'm going to find someone who will do something. Or else he can do what I told him in the first place and go to the retirement home. It's really not that bad a place, John Lee. There are activities and he’ll have company, other people like him."
“I read this story when I was a kid about a wild horse," John Lee told her. “A beautiful wild horse running free until someone caught it and put it in a corral with a bunch of other horses. He had food and water, he didn't have to worry about mountain lions chasing him or anything like that. But he withered away and died. He needed to be free. He wasn’t like those other horses in the corral."
"My father is not a horse, John Lee. He’s a cranky old man and he’s a thief. It's not the same."
"No, he's not a horse. But in a lot of ways the story’s the same," he told her. “Stand up and turn around."
She did and he used his key to take the handcuffs off and put them back in the pouch on his belt. Pointing at the door he said, “Go now. And I'm warning you, Bella, don't come back."
"I won't, but I'm warning you, if you don't do something, I will. Sooner or later I’ll put a stop to this, once and for all."
“I said go,” he ordered sternly.
Bella glared at him one last time, then went out the door and slammed it behind her. John Lee watched out the RV’s window as she walked to the road and then turned in the direction where she had parked her car.
***
It was another half hour before Paw Paw's Jeep pulled into the driveway and the two old men got out. They looked at the police car for a minute and then went to the house. A couple of minutes later, Billy came out and walked across the yard to the motorhome. His left hand was swathed in a thick bandage. He opened the door and saw John Lee sitting on the couch and saw the folder
open on his desk.
“How’s your hand?"
“It’s nothing," Billy said, “five stitches, but I’ll live." With a heavy sigh, he added, “So, Bella was here.”
“Oh yeah, Uncle Billy, she was here," John Lee said.
“It’s my own damn fault for putting you in this spot, John Lee. I always lock the door when I leave the RV, even if it’s just to go sit on the back porch and shoot the shit with Stan. But when I cut my hand, he put me in his Jeep and hauled ass for town and I forgot.”
“That doesn’t change any of this, Uncle Billy.”
“I know it doesn’t.”
“Have a seat. We need to talk.
Chapter 31
"It's not like I'm a real criminal, John Lee. I mean, yeah, I know what I'm doing is illegal, but who am I hurting? I only pass the bills at chain stores that make a fortune, never a mom-and-pop place."
"And that makes it all right?"
"Hell, John Lee, places like that lose more to shoplifters every day than I ever take from them. I only hit a place once, that's it, just once."
"How does it work, Uncle Billy?"
“I go in and I buy a soda pop or a lottery ticket, something like that. I give the clerk a ten dollar bill and I get back eight or nine dollars change. I do that four or five times a day and have enough money to supplement my Social Security and live pretty good. And I don’t do it every day, or even every week. Usually just when I’m on the move."
"Just out of curiosity, why ten dollar bills instead of 20s or 50s or 100s?"
"Nobody ever checks a ten dollar bill, John Lee. They got those markers that they run across a twenty or anything bigger than that to see if they’re counterfeit. But a ten? Nobody pays any attention to that at all."
John Lee picked up one of the sheets of paper from the folder and looked at the four ten dollar bills on it again. "I've got to admit, this looks damn good, Uncle Billy."
"Yeah, I work at it."
John Lee detected a hint of pride in the old man's tone.
"I use really good linen paper and I scan in a bill and repeat it until I fill the sheet and then when I print them off the computer, I put them in the dryer of my combination washer-dryer back there in the bedroom. That and a couple of fabric softener sheets and I let him tumble for two or three hours on cold. Then I cut them up and I’m ready to go."
